Protecting and Promoting the Right to Health in Latin America: Selected Experiences from the Field

Abstract

Through a description of the four major challenges faced by Latin American human rights groups and the strategies that they have adopted to overcome these challenges, this article seeks to incorporate the perspective of human rights activists into the discussion of how to make health a universally recognized human right. The ill-defined normative content of the right to health, the lack of precedents and procedures for enforceability, and the lack of consciousness of health as a right have presented major obstacles to the implementation of the right in the region. Also, Latin American human rights groups must move beyond traditional legal methods and expertise to work in an interdisciplinary fashion with health professionals and grassroots health groups. Despite the obvious obstacles, Latin American human rights groups cannot afford not to become involved in advocacy on the right to health.